Seeing Red
by Kanna-Ophelia
Summary: Cassidy's obsession with Jesse leads her into trouble... Twisted yamushipping, and something else. * yuri / femmeslash * *complete*
1. Obsessions

Seeing Red__

Dedication: This would never have been written without my beloved Floria's support at the crucial stage, and her incredible patience with having ideas flung at her. But mostly it's dedicated to her because I love her, more and more every day.

_The title is from a Split Enz song which sums up Cassidy's attitude. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to quote the relevant lines here._

"…And then we finally catch Pikachu!" the Team Rocket girl finished triumphantly.

Her companion did not fully share her enthusiasm. He looked at her with mild concern. "Finally? And don't mind my asking, but has the Boss ever actually expressed a desire for a Pikachu?"

His partner bit her lip in uncertainty. "Jesse and James seem to think the Boss wants _that _Pikachu. They've been chasing it for years."

"That means a lot," Butch grumbled. "I mean, Jesse and James being the acknowledged stars of Team Rocket."

"They once _were_," Cassidy sighed. It was incredible to think that Jesse and James had ever been seen as anything more than natural losers, but she had to admit that the pretty poseurs had once had quite a nasty reputation, instead of a purely ridiculous one.

"Yeah. Before it became clear that they were a couple of greedy, incompetent children dressed up as agents. When they're not actually dressed up as the opposite sex, that is."

Butch glanced sidelong at Cassidy's expression, and sighed himself. He knew perfectly well what the girl's recent obsession with catching Pikachu was all about. _Money-hungry_ _Rocket bitch with alarming hair seeks same… _He grinned to himself, despite his annoyance.

It wasn't just that Cassidy's tastes were fairly well known throughout Team Rocket. Butch's sleeping bag was only a few feet away from her, after all, and when she thought her partner was asleep, Cassidy wasn't always particularly discreet. For the first new nights after they had run into Giovanni's least favourite employees, it had been amusing and mildly erotic. By now, he was thoroughly tired of hearing the same name in a variety of whispers and screams every night, and fervently wishing something would occur to distract his best friend. Her single-mindedness was pleasing when it was good for both their careers, but it could be irritating when it came to illogical infatuations.

"All right," he growled. "The plan should work. So we catch Pikachu, and you finally prove to Jesse that you are far more brilliant, efficient and good at her job than she is, and she swoons with adulation. It's not going to work, you know. Jesse is less likely to admit you've beaten her than you are to admit she's beaten you, which is saying something. And I'd bet my life Jesse and James are bonking each other's brains out," he added, but silently. Cassidy wasn't quite as violently inclined as Jesse, but there wasn't a male member of Team Rocket who hadn't learned when not to provoke their partners too far.

Cassidy flushed. "I'm not trying to prove anything to Jesse. To the Boss," she snapped. "Don't you want to get that promotion?"

"Right, to the Boss, although I see absolutely no reason why a pokémon you could just pick up in Viridian Forest would win us a promotion. And then we all go back to normal - after you and Jesse have a nice little chat about obsessive compulsive disorders," Butch added under his breath.

Cassidy chose to ignore that remark. She considered it blatantly unfair. _Jesse _was the obsessive one. She'd been chasing after that little electric pokémon for years. Cassidy… just needed to make certain things clear to Jesse. Stupid, naïve child, thinking she could fuck someone like Cassidy and then turn and walk off with her fairy partner. And if the thought of Jesse brought a rush of red-tinged fury and pain to Cassidy's mind, that was only because she wasn't used to being flaunted by anyone, let alone someone she had once condescended to seduce. Not to mention that Jesse was, as well as being an arrogant brat, rather attractive…

There was no question that Jesse deserved a few hard lessons in respect… and her teacher would find them highly pleasurable to give. Just like the good old days back at Pokémon Tech. Jesse may have forgotten who had the power back then, but her 'friend' never would.

Cassidy tossed back her burnt-gold plaits. Butch was wrong - Cassidy wasn't obsessed with Jesse at all. She was simply _right_, as usual. Jesse belonged to her, and it was time the uppity little dyke came face to face with reality. Cassidy would forgive her… eventually. When she'd been taught the error of her ways. At painful length… Cassidy's scowl began to fade into a dreamy smile as she pictured the paths along which her ex-girlfriend's lessons would progress.

Butch, taking her softened expression as a positive sign, laid a gloved hand on her shoulder. "Shall we go steal Pikachu, Cass?" he offered, somewhat penitent for questioning her.

She smiled back at him, her good temper restored by his docility. Butch, she admitted grudgingly to herself, was all a Rocket girl could want in a partner. That is, if said Rocket girl's objective was to rise in the organisation, rather than to treat it as a combined fashion show and cuddle-fest, like some Rocket girls Cassidy could think of. Much as the thought of Jess and James' easy intimacy bothered her, it gave her an uncomfortable satisfaction to know the kind of disastrous effect they had on each other's ineptitude. Jesse would be _much _better off with Cassidy, if only she could be persuaded of that fact, than with that effeminate loser.

True, Butch's speaking voice had been known to make strong men faint dead away with pain, but Cassidy had eventually become used to even that, and Butch had other good traits to make up for it. Which was saying rather a lot, because making up for a voice that made steel-drilling attractive by comparison wasn't an easy task. The Rocket boy was good-looking, even-tempered, highly focussed and intelligent enough to be useful to Cassidy, without being intelligent enough to be a threat to her leadership. Most importantly of all, he was usually willing to fall in with Cassidy's plans. Cassidy thoroughly approved of her partner without feeling the least amount of affection for him.

But then, Cassidy had never been very good at affection. Affection was for sentimental weaklings like Jesse and James. It had no place in the heart of a _real _Rocket Bitch.

She maternally patted Butch's hand. "I'll fly the helicopter," she said.

Hours later…

Cassidy awoke to darkness, heat and crushing pain.

For long moments, rational thought was beyond her. Her body rebelled against the pain and she threw up, dimly aware of the warm vomit splashing against her usually immaculate uniform. She tried to roll over and keep herself uncontaminated, but her body was wracked with convulsions and controlled movement was beyond her powers. She heaved until she was empty, and then lay in her own filth, trembling and dry-retching as knives twisted in her forehead.

After a while the nausea lessened enough to allow some jumbled approximation of thought. _Show some discipline, Cass, pull yourself together, _she berated herself._ Deep breaths, controlled thought. Take charge…_

Fighting against her body's weakness, she arduously began to piece together the events of the last few hours. The helicopter… That child's Pikachu had managed to crash the helicopter by thundershocking it from the outside. How the fuck was that even possible? It didn't make sense, it shouldn't have happened… And they'd crashed… That must have been when she hit her head, but she hadn't passed out then, she was sure of it. Something had happened… Cassidy sought the memories, but she was in too much pain, and they couldn't be traced. There were holes in her memory, and she couldn't even tell what was missing.

She didn't want to die alone.

"Butch?' she called out softly, alarmed to hear her voice sound almost as rough as that of her vocally-challenged partner.

There was no answer. And unconsciousness was threatening to crash down on her again, drowning out the pain and sickness… Cassidy allowed herself to be enveloped in its warm embrace.

The nausea was gone, and the burning heat had cooled a little, when Cassidy awoke again. She still felt like someone was doing something extremely unpleasant to her brain with a red hot skewer, but at least that was an improvement on a red hot bowie knife… Even more encouragingly, she felt dry and clean. The stench of vomit she had been half-expecting was missing. Dry, clean and half-naked. Someone had removed her soiled uniform and sponged her skin. At least she wasn't dying alone in a ditch, then.

Cassidy took a moment to build up her willpower, then cautiously opened one violet eye. The sunlight shot sharp agony into her head, and she moaned, quickly dropping her lashes again.

"Drink this," a soft voice ordered, and something was held to Cassidy's lips. The liquid was horrendous, but to her relief it didn't cause a renewed fit of retching, and she gulped it down. "Whttsherizzit?" she managed to ask.

The possessor of the voice seemed to understand perfectly. "Infusion of spinaya weed, laced with morphine."

"Morphine?" Cassidy gasped, her lashes flying up in shock. The pain was an immediate punishment, but this time she fought it, trying to make her vision focus. All she could see was a blur of red and white.

"You've been stun-spored by a Vileplume," the voice explained, gently. It was a very sweet voice, feminine and with a certain musical laziness to it. "Most victims suffer only mild paralysis and perhaps a touch of fever, but you're had a rare allergic reaction to it. You would have died if I hadn't given you spinaya weed earlier. And the morphine will help with the pain. You don't feel very well, do you, dear?" the strange woman added, with a disturbing note of amusement behind her apparent compassion.

"Are you a Nurse Joy?" Cassidy asked, then chided herself for her fuzzy-headedness. Not only was the bright motherly manner missing form her healer, Cassidy wasn't a bloody pokemon. She tried to bring the colours into focus, and even attempt to identify some blurry shapes. There was blue there somewhere.

"No. But I have experience in dealing with stun-spore sickness."

"Your Vileplume?" Cassidy demanded. If this woman had been responsible for putting her through this, Cassidy would be damned if she'd thank her for undoing the damage. In fact, the moment she felt well enough to move, there'd be hell to pay.

"I'm afraid so. I do apologise for the inconvenience." Cassidy felt someone rise from the bed. "You should rest now. I'll talk to you again when you wake."

Cassidy made a superhuman effort, and made out the woman's face. "Jesse!" she whispered, the knowledge falling naturally and easily into her mind. Of course it was Jesse.

But the darkness was waiting to take her, and she passed out once again. 

TBC


	2. Misconceptions

Her third awakening was much less traumatic __

Note: Stronger sexual themes than in the last installment. 

Her third awakening was much less traumatic. Either the spin weed and morphine cocktail had performed its duty, or Cassidy possessed the legendary Team Rocket resilience. The average Rocket bitch could suffer blows that would cripple an ordinary woman for life, and have her hair back in order in under thirty seconds. The blonde was still dizzy, and her brain was working far too slowly and confusedly, but the pain was only a dim buzz in the background of her senses and she felt nearly herself again.

Cassidy was alert enough, this time, to raise her eyelids cautiously, getting used to the light without exposing her gaze to it too abruptly. She glanced round the room under her lashes, the circuit ending abruptly when it hit a familiar face.

Jesse. She was standing by a window doing nothing, in the spectacular way that both Jesse and James had perfected. They always managed to look as if they were film stars posing for a publicity shot when they were really just considering what to binge-eat next. The red-haired agent had obviously been engaged on one of the attempts at costume play that she and James used as substitutes for actual, well thought-out plans. She wore a long dress, of the frills and laced corset variety, the exact deep blue of the huge, almond-shaped eyes that dominated her heart-shaped face. Her hair, crimson in the dim glow of evening, was pinned up for once, emphasising the pale curve of her throat, and the sweetheart neckline of her gown dipped to reveal the soft swell of creamy breasts. She looked perfect in the soft evening light, an innocent Victorian maiden with the décolletage of a whore.

Jesse… Jesse had saved Cassidy. Had cleaned her and healed her and brought her back, and was now watching over her while she slept. Cassidy felt something dangerously like tenderness for a moment, but it was abruptly overwhelmed by sharp exhilaration. She had bloody _known _Jesse couldn't just walk out on her and put her out of her mind… The fatal combination of sentimentality and obsessiveness in Jesse was going to drop her right into Cassidy's hands.

The girl standing by the window sighed softly to herself, and shifted position, so that the last rays of the sun lit up her hair like the outer petals of a rose. She really was beautiful… Cassidy's mind, confused by concussion and painkilling drugs, wandered off into a little dream sequence of using Breeding Centre technology to give Jesse and herself a daughter. Talk about magic gene combinations. A girl with Jesse's looks and Cassidy's ruthlessness could rule the world, and all without ruining Cassidy's figure.

Unless little Jessidy ended up with Jesse's brains and Cassidy's hair. The thought, emerging through the jumbled nonsense, was disturbing enough to kick Cassidy into something like full consciousness. 

She tried to push herself into a sitting position, but encountered resistance at her wrists. And her ankles. She shrieked, half in amusement and half in rage, causing her captor to turn around.

"You bloody pervert! I wouldn't have thought you'd have it in you," Cassidy gasped, half-laughing with delighted outrage as she tested her bonds. "Where did my dear little virgin dyke go?" She looked more carefully around the room, and was torn between being impressed by the bizarre amount of equipment that Jesse seemed to have amassed for the occasion and the desire to teach the younger girl a lesson for her assumption.

"I don't know what you mean," the girl said stiffly. "And it's not proper to use those kind of names." 

There was something wrong with her voice as well as her words, but Cassidy was too caught up with other things to pay much attention. Faintly, to the blonde's horror, and despite her clouded head, she could feel wetness beginning to dew between her legs at the impossible situation. After all, there was a kind of primal response unavoidable when you were almost nude, and held helpless under the gaze of someone who had once caressed every exposed inch of skin… Of course, from Cassidy's point of view, entirely the wrong woman was tied to the bed, but possibly that could be corrected later. The important thing, Cassidy told herself, was that Jesse was for once admitting exactly what she wanted. Cassidy. Smugness vied with her other emotions.

"You don't know what I mean? Darling Jess, I'm tied to your bed in my underwear, why _ever_ would I think you were perverted?" Cassidy stopped struggling and allowed a smirk to creep onto her face instead. "I really am quite proud of you, my dear. No one could accuse you of learning slowly. Almost makes me wonder why you're such a failure - perhaps you're simply in the wrong career."

The redhead crinkled her lovely nose. "Your dress was soiled," she said with distaste. "Not that it was anything to boast of in the first place."

"You never change, do you? Even when you were gutter trash, you always had an opinion on everyone's clothes. You -" Cassidy bit down on the words. Baiting Jesse came naturally to her, but her logic, battling to come out from under the happy fuzz cuddled around her mind, warned her that bitching was not the best way to bring events to the conclusion that she wanted. That her body was telling her she desperately wanted, right now… She looked at Jesse's round little mouth, the red lips now set in a sulky pout, and remembered them wrapping wet warmth around the tip of one breast, touching almost imperceptibly lightly, until Cassidy had begged her to suck, bite, anything to ease the torment…

But anger was beginning to rise in her throat, as well as desire. She might be close to getting Jesse, but that didn't mean Cassidy was prepared to give the younger girl the upper hand. Her need for dignity and control fought against rising need. If only Jesse wasn't so damn gorgeous.

"C'mon, honey," she said, deliberately sugaring her voice. "You have the right idea, but I _really _prefer not to be the one tied up. Why don't you release me, and then we can get down to business," she added invitingly. There was a dangerous sparkle in her eyes, daring the other girl to set her free.

Jesse looked confused, and somewhat outraged. She lifted a hand to her hair, and Cassidy noticed with a kind of poignant pain that she wasn't wearing any gloves. The last time she had seen Jesse with bare hands as an adult, she had… Cassidy repressed a shiver, the tight tingle at her groin intensifying at the memory. Of course, she herself was only wearing bras and panties, and was far more exposed than Jesse…

"What kind of business?" 

Cassidy nearly laughed aloud. This was too perfect. Jesse was playing along just beautifully… The blonde dropped her voice to a purr. "Wouldn't it be better to show than tell? I could demonstrate _much _better if you untied me, beautiful Jessica."

The other girl stepped closer, and Cassidy, catching the intensity of the blue gaze, was certain she was wavering. Her own stomach convulsed. But after a long, breathless moment, the lovely face hardened. "I don't have time for this nonsense. Tell me where my James is."

"Don't _you _know? You usually can be relied on to," Cassidy added, disappointment fuelling her bitterness. _Her _James… "I should be asking _you _where _my _partner is."

She shook her head, wishing it would clear. Jesse's voice was definitely wrong. The volume was too soft, the intonations too feminine, the r's less sharp. Very pretty, and identifiably Jesse's voice, but pitched and accented differently. Still, the obsession with James was right in character… For all her apparent strength, Jesse was so dependent on her partner, it was laughable. It had been one of the reasons for the women's nasty breakup, in the final year at Pokémon Tech, that Jesse had put partying with her new little friend above studying with her girlfriend.

For some reason, despite all her experience, it startled her when Jesse's hand crashed down across her face. Not that Jesse had never hit her before. Jesse hit _everyone_, it was one of her standard methods of expressing anger. Or confusion. Or embarrassment. Or defensiveness. In some ways, Jesse's approach to life was remarkable straightforward. 

"You're in Team Rocket uniform," Jesse snapped. Cassidy's purple eyes widened in confusion. "And I've heard… Stop wasting my time, and tell me where to find my fiancée._"_

"Your _what?" _Cassidy was caught between derisive laughter and fury. "Oh, spare me. James is as likely to become engaged to a woman as you… are likely to be engaged to a man." Violet eyes blazed with fury. "_That's _it, is it? You're back in the closet, and taking your fairy girlfriend with you. Fucking hell. Well, it's not going to work, _Jessica_. For a start, you need to pick better camouflage. You and James could _never _pass as a married couple. The best you could manage is fag and his hag."

The thought of Jesse and James attempting to get married, James in a virginal white gown and his wife in a tuxedo, cut through her Cassidy's and brought laughter to her lips. Actually… The drug-dazed woman sent her mind back. Hadn't they actually attempted something like that once? In some odd way, Jesse and James really deserved each other… Except that Jesse was _hers_.

"More importantly," she continued, more softly, "if you 're trying to convince yourself you're straight, stripping me and tying me to a bed was _not _the best way to go about it. Doesn't it bring back pretty memories?"

She pasted her triumphant smirk back on, but her eyes, raised to meet Jesse's, were still furious, and ever so faintly laced with desperation. Jesse was suffering serious denial, Cassidy knew that, but surely she wouldn't actually go as far as to marry James… She was _hers, _damnit. Hadn't she proved it? Cassidy could remember her own name on the lips of that rosebud mouth as Jesse convulsed beneath her, could remember the softness of the way she melded drowsily into her arms in the shower afterwards… Jesse might not have ever admitted anything but using her for sex, but Cassidy _knew _what it meant when you cried out your lover's name.

Fuck it, if she let her temper die down for a moment, she was going to cry. In front of Jesse. Impossible. Especially as she was still aching and wet for her… It was just weakness from being knocked electrocuted and knocked unconscious and stun-spored and drugged and the goddess knew what else in the last few hours.

"Oh, but I assure you, you are mistaken. James and I are going to be married – he is_ mine._" Jesse smiled faintly, staring back down at her. And Cassidy, meeting her gaze, felt a sudden stab of doubt.

The eyes were wrong. Oh, they were still impossibly large and blue, but the expression of frosty, focussed intelligence wasn't that of Jesse. These eyes recalled the stereotypical cold blue eyes of bad romance fiction, while Jesse's eyes had always been a hot blue, and as limpid as her personality was mercurial. Cassidy had seen them swimming with tears, dilated with terror, flashing with anger and passion and laughter… Never iced over with calculation.

These eyes were… simply too intelligent for Jesse. Oh, Jesse was erratically brilliant and had a bizarre creative streak, Cassidy knew. But she had the attention span of a five year old, and was easily distracted from her brilliant plans by any combination of posing, drag, food and temper. Cassidy knew all about that. Jesse and James' regular reports on how they had managed to fail to capture Pikachu _that _week were the most popular reading in Team Rocket HQ. The account of the plan involving both of them dressing up as Officer Jenny had to be replaced three times, after disintegrating from excessive reading. Giovanni had done them the honour of using it as a centerpiece on his "Wrong ways to go about stealing Pokémon" annual lecture. 

She shook her head. Ridiculous. Of course this was Jesse. _She _knew Jesse, if anyone ever had… Maybe the red head grown up a little in the last few years, been hardened by constant failure.

"Jesse," she whispered, more pleadingly than she meant to. She was aware that her hair had been let out of its tight braids, and was loose around her shoulders. For some reason this made her feel naked. Like Jesse and those bloody black leather gloves… Which she wasn't wearing. "What do you want?"

"James." She sat gracefully down on the edge of the bed.

"No."

Jesse smiled, suddenly, her old brilliant flashing of lust and amusement. "Yes. But, really, what I should be asking is what _you_ want – as if that was not already abundantly clear. If I untied you, what would you like to do?"

Maybe Cassidy had only imagined her voice was wrong, because there was no feminine drawling now, only Jesse's familiar hard tones. Not that it was easy for Cassidy to concentrate on that, with one finger tracing the line of her brassiere, from under her armpits and up over the swell of one breast, dipping into her cleavage and then rounding the other… _Take command back now, girl, before you melt… _And no matter how much she had caved this touch again, Jesse was not the kind of lover you could show vulnerability to without ending up screwed in more than one way.

Cassidy waited until she had command of the breathlessness, deliberately blocking out physical sensations and emotional turmoil, until she could almost – if not quite – ignore Jesse's fingertip following the same path back. Until her voice was firm and strident, and she could make herself clear, with no detectable quiver in the words, and as sweetly as if she was talking to a small child.

"I want you to untie me so I can rip your clothes off, my Jessica. I want my fingers in you as you scream my name. I want to bruise your arse with my fingers and mark your breasts with my teeth, force your head between my legs and come into your pretty little mouth, and I want you screaming beneath me as I fuck you, core against core. I want, in fact exactly what you want," she continued gently, triumph bubbling up as she saw Jesse flush darkly and moisten dry lips, "but most of all – I want you to cut out this fucking crap about James being your fiancé!" 

Her voice rang out too loudly and angrily at the end, and Cassidy realised to her dismay that she had lost control of the sentence somewhere along the way. She bit her lip, realising that she had lost her momentarily advantage, and her ex-lover was looking detached and amused again, if a little breathless.

"But, my dear, you forget which of us is tied down." Jesse's hands were caressing more firmly now. She covered one breast and squeezed hard through the lace, the other hand splayed over the blonde's groin and pressing hard against the fabric, as the redhead's mouth curved in unkind satisfaction at the dampness her fingertips found. "Surely it is _I _who should be threatening to do these things to _you_?"

"Fuck it, Jesse!" Not a particularly well-reasoned argument, but Cassidy was beyond coherence.

Jesse laughed, her adorably high, wild giggle, only just on the safe side of the sanity divide. Definitely Jesse. "If you ask nicely." But her expression sobered. "I must admit, I have as much of a dislike of being the one tied down as you seem to. I much prefer to be in control, and if you only were willing to find that out, I think you'd enjoy yourself." Cassidy glared back, willing herself not to relent. 

Jesse sighed. "Then I'll bargain with you, if you like." She leaned down to kiss Cassidy's sensitive stomach, dipping her tongue briefly into her navel. Cassidy, helpless, remained lying still and sweating as imagine breaking her bounds, and rolling Jesse over, stopping her irritating mouth with her tongue…

"You help me find James, and leave me alone with him. And I untie you and let you have – anything you like." She sat up and smiled sweetly, brushing perspiration-damp bangs from Cassidy's face. "Deal?" She stooped again, this time to find the other woman's mouth.

Her touch was light and gentle, but her lips parted willingly enough when Cassidy kissed back furiously, raking her teeth over soft lips, thrusting her tongue hard and feeling something inside her give as her lover sucked back at the invading touch. 

Jesse lifted her head again, and blue eyes looked questioningly into violet. 

__

I'm not even sure if this really is Jesse, Cassidy realised._ She hasn't called me by my own name once. I'm concussed and drugged, and I can't think straight. My best friend may be in trouble, and Butch is going to kill me for having sex with an enemy while he's missing…_

"Deal," she said.

****

TBC…


	3. Consummation and Alliance

**Seeing Red Part II: Consummation and Alliance**

For Cassidy, the minutes following her last orgasm were somehow the most beautiful experience of sex. It was then urgency seamlessly melted into bliss. Her breathing finally slowed and deepened rather than wrenching out of her lungs, but her internal muscles were still spasming, her clitoris throbbing, and a deliciously relaxed warmth began to spread over her body, fed by endorphins. A few precious minutes of perfect languor and pleasure, before the pain from over-rough use of tender parts of her body began to be annoying, and the yearning to wash off the evidence of pleasure began to creep over her.

It was at the point at which is was natural to turn over and take your lover into your arms, share closeness without need, give silent thanks for shared joy. All of which was a little soppy for a certified Rocket bitch, but even a Rocket bitch is allowed a little drowsy sentimentality.

Cassidy raised herself a little on her elbow and looked at Jesse. The redhead was still breathing in choked gasps, cheeks suffused with blood, her breasts rising and falling dramatically enough to cause a last stubborn twinge of desire in the pit of Cassidy's stomach. Cassidy noticed with almost detached interest that her lovemaking had left cruel bruises on the other girl's flawless white skin. But then, she doubted she had been left unmarked herself. Neither of them had exactly been gentle...

Cassidy repressed a sigh and wondered why she couldn't just scoop her lover up and cuddle her. She had always been able to, in the dark glorious days before James and Team Rocket. Jesse had always been clinging and drowsy after sex, willing to share for a few beautiful minutes or hours a communion they never seemed to reach at other times. A few passing moments when they actually seemed like lovers, before both their guards snapped back up and they returned to point scoring and aggression-tinged lust. It was the only time Cassidy ever really felt secure that Jesse was hers. Jesse sleeping in her arms… The memory was sweet and sharp and tinged with pain. She wanted Jesse pliant and hers, for a few more hours.

Of course, the other woman on the bed was not Jesse.

Cassidy wondered when the doubts had become certain knowledge. Her mind had desperately screamed at her that this woman was Jesse, her Jesse. The finely sculpted body had been blissfully familiar to mouth and hands, had opened and responded in the familiar way burned on Cassidy's memory. She had screamed "_Mine_, Jesse!" as she climaxed, and the hard tinkle of laughter in response had been painfully familiar. When she drank from her body, the taste had been familiar, had been right...

But it wasn't Jesse.

Perhaps it had just been too easy. Once she had decided to play along, this girl had been accommodating and skilled enough, even passionate, and had thrown herself into the acts with commendable enthusiasm. But it had just been that... acts. The intensity Cassidy associated with Jesse had been missing. 

With Jesse, every orgasm she had forced form the other girl had been a victory of sorts, every intimate act both tender and forceful, and Jesse had fought and loved back hard. Kisses had gashed war wounds as superficial and stinging much as those made by their fingernails. This girl... There had been frigidity behind her blue eyes that resisted thawing even as her body ran with hot honey. It had not, in some deep way, mattered. And Cassidy knew that even if Jesse loved James, everything she did with her one-time lover would still matter, for good or for evil.

And if it wasn't really Jesse... Jesse, whatever else she was or was not, was a fellow Team Rocket agent. Of course she had betrayed Cassidy to the cops, but then, Cassidy had tried on certain occasions to get Jesse arrested too. Such things were normal mild, almost-friendly intra-Rocket rivalries. Everyone knew Giovanni wouldn't really let you rot in prison, however much he might like to. But if this girl was a stranger…

All Cassidy's half-acknowledged fears about her partner rushed to the fore. This girl had poisoned her and tied her down and then fucked her while pretending to be someone else. Cassidy's active desire was irrelevant. This woman was a psycho. And Cassidy didn't know what had happened to Butch. Guilt, all the more excruciating because it was an emotion she was unused to, because a professional criminal wasn't meant to feel regret, gripped her.

She fought back sudden burning tears and asked, quietly, "Who are you?"

"Why, I thought you would never ask," the girl drawled, the tones she had used in their first drug-blurred conversation back in full melodic force. "Definitely improper behaviour, to make love to me without being formally introduced, although you guessed closely enough. My name is Jessibelle." She spoke her name as if she was declaring a title.

Cassidy choked on hysterical laughter through her tears. "You're kidding. Jessica and Jessibelle. That's just too sickeningly adorable... What, did you and Jesse have particularly sadistic parents?"

The lovely face beside her darkened and twisted with fury, a paler reflection of Jesse's notorious temper. "I am _not_ that little slut's sister!"

"Of course you're not. No one would ever think such a thing of you," Cassidy soothed, still trying not to laugh. "Who exactly are you, then?"

The girl smirked, in a very Jesse-like fashion. They must be sisters, whatever she claimed.. "I told you. James' fiancée."

Cassidy shook her golden head. This was all becoming far too much to deal with. "James is engaged to a girl that looks just like his beloved Jesse?" The words, even though meant sarcastically, hurt as they left her lips. Better a Jesse clone than Jesse, of course.

"The resemblance escapes me," Jessibelle said coldly. She sat up on the bed and primly crossed her beautiful ankles. She managed somehow, despite her disarrayed hair, her nudity and the bruises on her hips and breasts, to look like a little porcelain doll, cool and pure. Jesse had the same ability to maintain dignity and beauty in the most undignified of situations. "However," the redhead continued, "from the fact that you mistook me for Jesse, and the way you… responded… I gather you have your own reasons to dislike the fact that that… harlot… has stolen James away from his friends and family." The deep blue eyes were glimmering with something like tears. "I have no idea how that witch managed to gain ascendancy over him-"

"Jesse has a bad effect on people," Cassidy admitted bitterly.

"-but I am hoping that you'll be willing to help free him from her evil spell."

Cassidy sat up herself. She was still worried about Butch, but this sounded – hopeful. "You really want to marry him?" she asked curiously. It seemed beyond belief to her, as inconceivable as Jesse's apparent devotion to the boy. She couldn't understand what appeal he would have, even to a woman who preferred men. And James was hardly a man. He was pretty but weak, effeminate and unworthy of these beautiful strong women, women who deserved equals who could match and conquer them, women who deserved – someone like Cassidy. "Jessibelle." The name felt strange on her lips. "Jessibelle,-- why do you want him so much?" She didn't bother to conceal the scorn in her voice.

Jessibelle shrugged. "My dearest James is pliable, he can be easily formed into a proper husband with correct training. Which I am fully capable of providing." Cassidy didn't doubt her for one moment. "And of course, his family is very wealthy, and well-connected." 

"And that's all?" Cassidy asked, wondering what would make greedy, childish James leave a wealthy family to sleep on the ground with Jesse. Surely not fleeing this beautiful, vibrant woman… Unless he was gay. Which would mean that she was a fool to worry about Jesse… She smiled to herself.

"What is more important than money and status in determining a suitable match?" Her voice was confident, but she would not meet Cassidy's gaze. Jessibelle sighed suddenly. "And he defied me. He was mine, and she has him. I cannot allow that to happen."

Cassidy grinned suddenly. "Now you're talking my language." There was a sparkling shot of communion as sapphire eyes met amethyst. "Are you offering – an alliance? We work together, and when we find them, we both get who we want?"

Jessibelle nodded. "Precisely." She reached for Cassidy, but the blonde evaded her lunge, not without some reluctance.

"I need to know two things before we reach agreement. First, is my partner alive? You must have noticed him, black Rocket uniform, aqua hair, voice like a constipated crow."

Jessibelle shrugged, without interest. "The servants are caring for him. You will be reunited any time you choose. I spoke to you because I usually find ladies – more pliable."

"Bad call, but then I'm not precisely a lady." She wondered idly what Bitch would have made of Jessibelle. It was unlikely that he would have made as good use of the time as she had, but then, with Butch you never knew. "Alright, second question."

"Which is?"

Cassidy leaned forward and grasped Jessibelle's chin, turning her face to her. So lovely… Jesse's heart-shaped face, her clear eyes. She turned her head again, and moved her lips against Jessibelle's ear, breathing wetly into it as she whispered, "Did you only make love to me to get me to agree to your plan?" She bit her earlobe, sharply, and heard Jessibelle gasp. Jesse's gasp. "Or was there… another reason?" She swirled her tongue against the other girl's ear, probed gently, as one hand came up to grasp Jessibelle's breast again.

"It was not the only reason," Jessibelle managed, arching her back to press her breast more firmly against Cassidy's hand. "And if you are asking if this is part of the agreement… Then, yes." She pushed the blonde back on the bed suddenly, and forced her tongue into her mouth. Breathless minutes later, she raised her head. "But only until I find my darling James."

"Only until I find what I want, too…" Cassidy murmured.

Her heart was soaring. She knew, she just knew, that she and Jessibelle could find Jesse and James together. Together – with Butch, who would play along, Cassidy would make certain of that – they would be unstoppable. There was a sweet taste of revenge, too, in the thought that Jesse would have to watch her precious flower of a partner be claimed and trained by her own doppelganger. While Cassidy claimed her own prize… Ah, yes, revenge would be sweet indeed.

She ran her hands slowly up Jessibelle's perfect curves, and smiled to herself. And the road to revenge would be sweet, too. She pulled Jessibelle's mouth down to hers, to seal the compact.

Jesse and James wouldn't know what was going to hit them.

~end~


End file.
